Raccoon Rampage They Can Be Funny Or Dangerous, But Man Vs. Animal Clashes Are On The Increase.

October 5, 1988|By MICHAEL SAUNDERS, Staff Writer

A frightened raccoon and her two babies tumbled through the ceiling tiles of a county library building near Delray Beach late Monday night, shutting down the library all day on Tuesday.

County animal control authorities are also looking for two renegade raccoons that have bitten five people in recent weeks.

Clashes with raccoons are becoming more frequent as the county`s human population increasingly overlaps its animal population.

``We`re not much of a rural county anymore,`` said Dennis Moore, director of the county Department of Animal Regulation. ``We have a growing problem with raccoons.``

``Both the number of injured animals we`ve seen and the number we`ve caught in traps have increased,`` Moore said.

Worse, the raccoon bites and scratches have also increased, he said.

Five people have been bitten or scratched since July 1. Only three people were bitten or scratched from July 1, 1987, to June 30, 1988, Moore said.

A scratch that breaks the skin is treated as a bite and also requires rabies shots, Moore said.

Medical advances have reduced the number of rabies shots from 14 injections in the abdomen to five in the hip and arm, Moore said.

There were no bites on Tuesday, but the unwelcome guests at the West Atlantic Avenue branch library set off the alarm system and left a trail of tile fragments and raccoon droppings when the animals holed up behind the literature section.

Library workers were forced to close the branch, a polling place on Tuesday, to everyone except voters.

Detective Dan Reimer of the county Sheriff`s Office was passing near the library when he heard the alarm.

``When I went to the door, I could see them sitting on the desk,`` he said.

Library officials called in Nightcrawlers, a private animal control company, to try to remove the animals.

As of late Tuesday, the raccoons were still ensconced amid the books. Librarian Naomi Jacobs said the raccoons had been nesting in the ceiling for some time. All day Tuesday, they refused to budge from the library shelves.

Meanwhile, investigators from the county Department of Animal Regulation are tracking two less-than-cuddly raccoons that have bitten the five West Palm Beach people.

One of them is a fearless raccoon that tried to climb into a couple`s bed three times, and later bit their 3-year-old son.

William Myerson of Wildemere Road says his family always loved the idea that raccoons and opossums still live in the neighborhood -- until his wife and son each had to take a series of expensive rabies shots after run-ins with a bold raccoon.

About three weeks ago, Barbara Myerson said she was awakened one night by a faint touch on her foot. It was the raccoon, which had entered the two-story house through a cat door.

``I woke up right away, and he ran away,`` she said. The raccoon left a small scratch on her foot. ``When it happened the other times, I told Billy that there was a raccoon under the bed. ... He said, `Yeah, right.```

William Myerson said he had had enough when the raccoon sneaked into the house one evening while the family was in the back yard and bit his son, Jerome ``Moon`` Myerson, when the boy came inside the house.

That animal is probably responsible for at least one other bite, Moore said.

He suspects that the raccoon was probably someone`s pet.

``Raccoons are cute, and people will start feeding them,`` he said. ``And that`s the worst possible thing they could do.``

The animals lose their fear of man and begin to adapt to urban life, Moore said, causing problems for county and city animal control agencies. The agencies are not required to trap and remove wild animals, which are the responsibility of the state Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission.

However, most agencies or private animal-control agents will remove wild animal pests, he said.

Jeff Vorpagel of Delray Beach Animal Control says he usually tries to put a few major roads between the captured raccoon and its former territory.

``If he gets back to Delray after all that, I`ll give him the keys to the city,`` he said.

Moore says his department tries to relocate captured animals as much as it can but is running out of places to take them.

``We`re running all around the county, and it takes away from what we`re supposed to be doing, which is taking care of domesticated animals like cats and dogs,`` Moore said.

``We`re probably going to have to start destroying the animals that are impounded,`` he said.